Sange Tamang, 48, of Mugugaun, Mugamkarmarong Rural Municipality-2, Mugu, left the village with his family of five in the last week of Kartik. He will return to the village only in the last week of Chaitra. In the meantime, he plans to reach Nepalgunj and Kathmandu to sell herbs. Tamang's annual expenses are covered by the herbal business. "My wife and children live in Surkhet with a room," he said.

It has been almost a month since Karmalondup Lama, 39, from Mugugaon, also left the village. His eldest son, Pema, 15, studies at a monastery in Boudha, Kathmandu, and his youngest son, Pasang, 9, studies in Surkhet.

He, who started a mule business and built a house in Surkhet four years ago, is on his way to meet his sons with his wife, Angmu. He spends five months of the winter wandering. ‘Now, the village is covered in snow, it is not possible to live there,’ he said. ‘Now, there are only the monastery priests and 2/4 village shepherds in the village.’

As most people leave the village due to the cold, the settlements of Mugu, Chitai, Dolfu, Karti, Kimri and others in Mugamkarmarong rural municipality are deserted. Out of 1,300 households in the municipality, about 500 families in the high mountainous areas have already left their settlements, said Rural Municipality Chairman Tshiringkapne Lama. According to him, local residents have reached the district headquarters, Gamgadhi, Siranichaur, Chitai, Kuna, Gamgadhi and other places. 'After the snowfall, it is impossible to travel from one village to another, and communication links are also cut off throughout the municipality,' he said. 'That is why the village has become deserted without snowfall.'

After the settlement became deserted, the staff of the ward office, health post and police post have also gone to the district headquarters. The border police post in Mugu has also been shifted to the district headquarters. After the children went out with their parents, the school has been given a holiday. According to Gurutsi Tamang, a teacher at Chitai Basic School, mobile schools are being run in some places. 'We go to wherever there are students and run mobile schools,' he said.

Residents who left the village in Kartik return to the village only in the last week of Chaitra. ‘Due to heavy snowfall and extreme cold, no one can live in the village. Since there is no one in the village, the service flow of ward offices also comes to a standstill,’ said teacher Tamang. ‘Only one crop of yam grows in the village every year.’ According to him, the development of the entire municipality has been sustained only by the construction work carried out from Falgun to Ashar.

Local Kunjang Lama said that since it is extremely cold in winter and during the rainy season, the locals leave the village to sell herbs such as yarcha and meet relatives and children. According to him, most of the children are pursuing Buddhist education. They go to various places in India, including Kathmandu’s Bouddha and Lumbini. ‘At other times, only the elderly live in the village, the youth go to the city for business and work, and the winter time is also used to meet them,’ he said, ‘The village’s produce is not enough to eat for even 3 months. There is no alternative to seasonal migration.’

The main source of income in the high Himalayan settlements is herbs. Animals including goats, horses, mules and other animals are also kept in the village. Before leaving the settlement, the locals have procured about a month’s worth of grass for the animals. ‘The job of a shepherd is to graze livestock when there is no snow and to provide grass and straw to livestock at other times,’ said Chhiringdorje Lama of Dolph, ‘Some people bring their livestock to the Aunka settlement along with their families.’

According to Chhiringantu Tamang, a leader of Mugugaon, if the patient does not get better with herbal medicine and home-made herbs, they are forced to walk for two days to reach Gamgadhi to get medicine. ‘Even though there is a health post in the village, there is no medicine. If someone is seriously ill, there is no option but to charter a helicopter,’ he said. ‘If a pregnant woman has a problem, 4/5 young men are forced to carry her on a stretcher for a day to Pulu, the municipal center.’

There are no road facilities in the upper 12 settlements of Mugamkarmarong. Karmanorbul Lama of Karti village says, ‘We are forced to suffer from rice and salt shortages every year due to the lack of roads. When the roads were available, we could at least eat our fill.’ Due to the lack of road facilities, the people of Karmarong have been suffering from high prices for a long time. Sonam Tamang of Dauragaun said that even though a 25-kilogram sack of rice is available for 1,800 rupees in Gamgadhi, it costs up to 5,000 rupees when it is delivered to the village. He says that due to the lack of roads, the village’s agricultural produce such as potatoes, apples, and yams go to waste.

According to Pema Tshiring Tamang of Dolfu, an organization has provided electricity to 6 villages including Dolfu, Taka, Khari, Daura, Chittai, and Kimri through a project of about 100 kilowatts. The solar energy in the telephone tower does not work when the sun is not shining. At that time, they must be deprived of telephone facilities.

Despite all the inconveniences in the village, Pema Tshering Tamang of Dolphu said that he could not leave the village because he was earning a living by relying on herbs. ‘Herbs such as Yarcha, Guchchichayu, Panchaule are available in abundance, which has made it easy to earn a living,’ he said, ‘Some people have been raising sheep and goats in the village to earn a living.’

Mugamkarmarong Rural Municipality Chairman Tsheringkapne Lama says that the Himalayan settlements are in dire straits. According to him, before the Corona pandemic, the locals used to buy food and daily necessities from the Chinese market. ‘After Corona, China closed the border,’ he said, ‘Now there is no option but to go to Gamgadhi to buy food and necessities.’

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Residents of Limi in Namkha Rural Municipality-6 of Humla gathered in the last week of Kartik. The meeting, attended by the ward chairperson and other people's representatives, discussed development, public service delivery, peace and security. The locals left the village immediately after the meeting. Since then, Limi has experienced three snowfalls.

Limi has three villages that experience heavy snowfall - Til, Halji and Jang. There are 147 households there. The residents of all three settlements leave the village for about 5 months every year. A meeting is held before leaving the village. 'This time, it snowed early, in the second week of Kartik, and the snow was removed by dozers and reached the district headquarters,' said Paljor Tamang, ward chairperson of Namkha-6. 'We will reach the provincial capital and the federal capital with the decisions and demands made in the meeting.' According to him, there are currently a monastery lama and 10/15 shepherds in the village.

Those who left the village for the last week of Chaitra have reached Surkhet, Nepalgunj and Kathmandu. ‘Some even reach India for herbal trade,’ said local Kunjong Tamang, ‘Many youth and children are outside, winter is the time to meet them. We also spend time going on religious pilgrimages.’ He informed that youth are outside for business and children are studying Buddhism. He said that seasonal migration is not difficult as some residents of Limi have built houses in places such as the district headquarters Simkot, Surkhet, Nepalgunj, Kathmandu and others.

The main source of income for the residents of Limi is herbal collection and sheep and goat farming. According to Tamang, some youth go to the Chinese city of Taklakot for labor. ‘For us, foreign land is Taklakot. Working in Taklakot earns at least 1.5 lakh rupees a month,’ he said. ‘Every household has goats and sheep, and that also generates some income.’ This year, about 80 youth from Limi had gone to Taklakot. They had worked for about 6 months and returned to their village before the snow fell.

Pasang Tamang of Halji said that Limi, known as the village beyond the Himalayas, grows only one crop of yams a year due to the inconvenience of irrigation and extreme cold. ‘There are no fresh vegetables, only potatoes and chota (a local variety of radish) are grown,’ he said. ‘Our own produce is enough for 2/3 months, the rest of the time we eat food from outside.’

Limi has been connected to the road since the Hilsa-Simkot road was opened two years ago. To reach the district headquarters, Simkot, from the village, one has to cross Nara and Nyalu lakes, which are about 5,000 meters long. ‘Both lakes remain covered in thick snow until Chait, we stay outside until the snow melts,’ said Tamang. ‘Development has entered the village after the road was built, and the road has reduced the distance of 3 days to the district headquarters to 6/7 hours.’

He said that electricity has been supplied to the village through the Haljikhola Micro Hydropower Project. There is a Haljigumba monastery, which is about 1,000 years old, in the village. ‘We have great faith in religion, and we have not been able to leave the village because of the monastery,’ said local Kojung Tamang. ‘Most parents have been teaching their children Buddhist education due to religious beliefs.’ Ward chairman Tamang said that two basic schools in Til and Jang have been closed due to the parents’ attraction to Buddhist education. According to him, there are only 24 students at Sunkhani Basic School in Halji, which offers education up to grade 8. The school is currently on winter vacation.